Ronnie Scott & His American Friends: Secret Love – review

Ronnie Scott hated recording. He found it inhibiting, he said, and it stopped him from playing his best. But these five numbers, recorded at his old Gerrard Street club in 1964, are a different matter. They were discreetly taped by journalist Les Tomkins, the club's unofficial archivist, during normal club sessions and they catch the real Ronnie in blinding form, duetting with star guests Sonny Stitt, Donald Byrd, Freddie Hubbard and JJ Johnson. His first solo alone, an eight-minute rampage through "Secret Love", proves conclusively that Ronnie was a great musician with club-owning as a sideline.